Watch, Watched, Watching: From Scott Civil Wars to Christmas Movie Wars

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Snyders zombie film wasn’t great either but it was fun to watch guys.

 

[Heartofice]

18 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Snyders zombie film wasn’t great either but it was fun to watch guys.

 

I guess if you like watching guys then Zach Snyder’s movies do have guys in them that you can watch. 
 

Personally my standards are a bit higher but each to their own.

[Veltigar]

Watched the season finale of Rick and Morty season 7. Not as good as the Pope episode that came before, but still highly enjoyable. If they can keep up this level for the remaining seasons, I'd be happy, as it is very comforting to spent time with these characters.

4 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I absolutely guarantee you'll like it.

That sounds like a diss 

4 hours ago, Ran said:

You've never met a bigger Snyder-head than Deadlines.

When Deadlines dreams about the Snyder Cut, he isn't dreaming of an extended version of the Justice League! 

[kissdbyfire]

12 hours ago, Zorral said:

@kissdbyfire  

Don't know if you like the Vera Stanhope novels by Ann Cleeves, or the television series adapted from them, but if you do, the 12th, the latest series of Vera, on Britbox, has just put the 5th episode, to be a Christmas special.  It's the way I like tv, or movies or novels that have Christmas in them -- it's not about Christmas, it's that the events are taking place in the season.  The Rising Tide (2023), is fabricated from the 10th Stanhope, which so far is the final Vera novel.

Excellent tip! Actually, excellent double tip. I love the TV show but  haven't read any of the books yet. They somehow aren't moving up as they should in my ever-increasing "to read list".

[Spockydog]

On 12/19/2023 at 4:33 PM, polishgenius said:

 

I suppose it depends what you mean by 'great'. I don't think it's gonna define an era of movies or anything, but it hit the spot for me (and evidently quite a few others). 

The first one is a bunch of macho bullshit. American propaganda with a healthy dose of repressed homoeroticism. 

The second one is slightly better, but the premise completely falls apart when you ask yourself, "Huh? Why didn't they just use a drone?"

Edited December 22, 2023 by Spockydog

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I wanted to like Rebel Moon, I have an obvious bias, but that shit sucked. Had to turn it off midway through. I'll give it a second chance later though I doubt my opinion will change. 

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

but the premise completely falls apart when you ask yourself, "Huh? Why didn't they just use a drone?"

 

That's an 'eagles fly to Mount Doom' question. There are so many stories, particularly adventure stories of one kind or another, that could be picked apart with a question like that. I don't think it's really fair to mark movies down for questions for which the answer is 'because otherwise there wouldn't be a movie'. 

 

Macho bullshit is fair, but ya know. I don't mind a macho bullshit movie every once in a while, clearly. 

 

Also I don't think the homoeroticism in the OG Top Gun is all that veiled. 

[Heartofice]

3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

That's an 'eagles fly to Mount Doom' question. There are so many stories, particularly adventure stories of one kind or another, that could be picked apart with a question like that. I don't think it's really fair to mark movies down for questions for which the answer is 'because otherwise there wouldn't be a movie'. 

 

Macho bullshit is fair, but ya know. I don't mind a macho bullshit movie every once in a while, clearly. 

 

Also I don't think the homoeroticism in the OG Top Gun is all that veiled. 

‘Why can’t the eagles just fly to Mount doom’ is easily countered though.
 

Why not fly a drone just gets you chants of ‘USA USA USA..’

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

 

The second one is slightly better, but the premise completely falls apart when you ask yourself, "Huh? Why didn't they just use a drone?"

Pretty sure Maverick says that the F35 could easily do that job and one of the admirals says that there is a lot of jamming around that mountain. So likely drones could be jammed, too.

[SpaceChampion]

Rebel Moon isn't Star Wars, that's just lazy criticism.  It's more of a fairy tale / Chronicles of Riddick / D&D campaign setting.

Edited December 22, 2023 by SpaceChampion

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

Rebel Moon isn't Star Wars, that's just lazy criticism.  It's more of a fairy tale / Chronicles of Riddick / D&D campaign setting.

It literally was a star wars spec script floated by Snyder to Disney.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

31 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

It literally was a star wars spec script floated by Snyder to Disney.

I mentioned it before, my cuz said you couldn't use the word "lightsaber" on set despite there clearly being lightsabers in the film. 

[SpaceChampion]

45 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

It literally was a star wars spec script floated by Snyder to Disney.

No shit.  That doesn't mean the result was anything like Star Wars.

[Kalbear]

Just now, SpaceChampion said:

No shit.  That doesn't mean the result was anything like Star Wars.

It might not, but it does mean it's not 'lazy criticism' to compare it to Star Wars. 

[SpaceChampion]

that's "the sky is green in both so they're exactly the same" kind of criticism. 

[dbunting]

Finished S1 of The Diplomat, Netflix. It's pretty good, gets better toward the end of the season. Keri Russell is good as usual.

Spoiler

Pretty much telegraphed the cliff hanger with the PM being suspected of the bombing. Didn't expect the car bomb, but did figure that the guy Hal was meeting had info about the PM so a hit made sense.

States at the end that S2 is coming so Ill watch it.

[Kalbear]

5 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

that's "the sky is green in both so they're exactly the same" kind of criticism. 

Dude, there's a rebellion, an empire (complete with Nazi uniform styling) and lightsabers. That's a bit more than 'the sky is green'. Also saying that it's a fairy tale or a myth or a D&D campaign doesn't really do it much favor, as Star Wars is that as well.

I don't personally care that much about it as far as that goes - it's also clearly based on the 7 samurai stories too (as Star Wars was), and copying things isn't a big deal to me as long as it's cool - but it's not particularly lazy to point out the similarities or straight-up ripoffs.

[SpaceChampion]

There is nothing wrong with one story being like another.  There is nothing wrong with being like Star Wars.  There is nothing wrong with being NOT like Star Wars.  Neither one is a criticism.  It's a superficial observation.

Avatar is like Fern Gully, or Pocohontas, or Dances With Wolves, whatever.  But James Cameron know how to go past a thin story structure to create interesting characters with deeper themes around that structure.  Snyder doesn't.  He failed where Cameron didn't.  I looked for deeper themes but there wasn't any. 

 

[Kalbear]

5 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

There is nothing wrong with one story being like another.  There is nothing wrong with being like Star Wars.  There is nothing wrong with being NOT like Star Wars.  Neither one is a criticism.  It's a superficial observation.

Avatar is like Fern Gully, or Pocohontas, or Dances With Wolves, whatever.  But James Cameron know how to go past a thin story structure to create interesting characters with deeper themes around that structure.  Snyder doesn't.  He failed where Cameron didn't.  I looked for deeper themes but there wasn't any. 

 

I think this is spot on. It's a superficial criticism but since Snyder only deals with superficiality it is entirely an accurate and reasonable criticism. It would be less so with Avatar - especially since a lot of what makes that work is how incredibly technically sound it is compared to other stories - but in this case saying that it's a knockoff of Star Wars is entirely fair to nail Snyder with. 

[WarGalley]

Watched the first episode of Reacher S2. While you know what you're getting if you've seen S1, Reacher's flawless and perfect hero persona is almost gagging in it's flattery. 

Spoilers E1:

Spoiler

When they figured out that the dude's password was "Reacher", I half expected Reacher to drop his pants and get a double blowjob from both the other teammates.